Post by Knight Errant on Dec 27, 2012 23:28:37 GMT -5
I really meant to make this coincide with v5 but since that all went to custard I might as well start now...
Pride of Nations
Pride of Nations is a modern-day collaborative setting which you can participate in at entirely your own pace. It is intended to be first and foremost an outlet for modern-themed nations, but also able to facilitate RP and gaming interactions if members so desire. I have decided to keep things simple by modifying an existing world map to make a slightly more broken-looking Planet Earth. This way, we can use already-established climatic and cultural zones to more precisely determine the parameters of our nations. With over 160 different territory slots in which to situate your countries, I hope that every PW member can happily carve out their own nation and contribute every now and again to wider world events.
Picking a Nation Slot
To begin, simply select a territory on the map, colour it in and then post a clipping of the general area with the coloured nation and its desired name in the Birth of a Nation thread. If two territories are separated by a water barrier with no land borders between them, you may claim them as a single territory if you wish. Two territories divided by borders cannot be claimed as a single territory. You may make more than one nation, but ideally these nations should be spread across different continents (for two reasons: one, so that you can put a little cultural and ethnic diversity in your figures and two, so that we don’t end up with four people controlling all of the nations in Europe and newcomers unable to get a look-in. Once you’ve done that, make a thread for your nation and take it from there.
Can I also just ask at this point that you be a little serious about thinking up original names. “Take-offs” of real-world things (such as doing the acronym USSR to death as always) get very tiring very quickly, as do one-shot joke names (e.g the Bananastan Republic). Think creatively and culturally to come up with the perfect national name to fit your nation’s location and people.
Analogues with the Real World
The current setting year is whatever the year is in the real world. For the purposes of absolute simplicity in setup, assume that European nations have had their colonial influence on the rest and that there have been two world wars in the 20th Century. As for the rise of Communism, that is entirely up to each nation to decide whether or not they have had a Communist past.
Languages and religions are pretty freeform. If you want to have an analogue for a real language, just post it up in the Analogues thread. This is a first come, first served basis, so if for example somebody declared Ghami to be the equivalent of Arabic, then any nation using Arabic as a language would canonically have their citizens speaking Ghami to one another. Or you can declare a mash-uppish language (like the Germanic/Slavic ‘Bravic’ for Ludobravia), and others can also have their citizens speaking it if they choose. It is the same with religion, though of course you can change specifics. For example, the Marianism practiced by Ludobravia is mostly Catholic in semblance, but revolves around the mystical powers of “the Blessed Mary” rather than Christ.
It is always a good idea to interweave others’ ideas into your own nation to give a better sense that these are all countries sharing the same history and the same lineage as each other. You can always make this process quicker by adding in blank slots <in these thingies> so that neighbouring/culturally related nations can intertwine their history into your own.
Tech etc.
We are looking for a living, modern-style world here, and so I will presume to make a few restrictions with regards to technology:
1) If a military uses a certain technology, you can have it. So drones, reactive armour, TUSK, all that sort of good stuff; you can have as much of it as you want. NOTE: I will say this once – this only includes equipment in widespread military use. That means that if the technology is only experimental at present (US/Canada invisibility cloaks, I’m looking at you) then at the very best the technology is only experimental in the PoN world and is certainly not in frontline military use. This is to stop sci-fi spam along the lines of but the US experimented with orbital lasers so I should be allowed them...
2) No walking vehicles (unless they are those small, dog-sized bomb disposal robots), no flying tanks/aircraft carriers/fortresses and please, no orbital battle stations. Imagine that your nation exists today, and think of its real-world priorities.
3) That being said, if any new technologies enter widespread military service in the months and years to come, once they are confirmed to be in military use then you can have them.
Acting out your nation
All I have to say for this is: it is not a measuring contest here. Imagine that your nation is working within a budget at all times; million-man armies are not going to be possible for most nations on the map, and setting up a national border consisting of reinforced concrete walls topped with automated miniguns turrets probably won’t earn you anything more than rolling eyes from other members. For example, I plan to make a small nation, Ludobravia, occupying one of the smallest slots on the map, and so my military is likely to be small, centred around fairly few types of equipment manned by a small but dedicated national army. A long-range, B-52 bomber is simply not a realistic goal for my nation, as it would break the miniscule national budget and also anger the (generally) peace-loving Ludobravian people. If you are still desperate to make something for the game world that doesn’t necessarily fit your nation, then do it through other means (see the Not interested in any of the above? section for more) .
The best nations will have a lot of depth. Depth includes art (both paper soldier sheets and scenes), details (e.g all of the stuff you’d expect to find in the right-hand box of a country’s Wikipedia page) and fluff. Fluff especially helps to give a greater feel for what it is like to live, serve and work in your nation.
Role-Playing
If you want to role-play a diplomatic incident/war/airshow/whatever, arrange things with the controllers of the focus nations and work from there in a new thread. If you want to join in an already-running RP, ask those already involved in it and get their approval first. It’s as simple as that.
Gaming
If you want to play a game based around the PoN nations and map, make a thread headed Game: <name>, and establish the rules and parameters by which all players must abide. No game is compulsory for those involved in PoN, but all games should be open to those who want to join. Game events can’t affect those outside of the game unless they choose so, and only material written in national factbook threads outside of the game counts as any form of ‘canon’ for other players (unless otherwise decided). Just try to have fun and don’t let it devolve into a ragefest/spamfest/flamewar.
Not interested in any of the above?
There is nothing saying that you just have to stick to the time-honoured format of building your nation and proceeding from there. There is more to the real world than just nations, after all. Think about what you can make to benefit the game. Even if you don’t want to have to make a nation in order to post up your vehicle designs you can still showcase them by roleplaying as a weapons manufacturer or tech company etc. This can help other players as well. Want a new LAV for your national military but don’t have the time or motivation to make one yourself? Shop around other manufacturers or post up a design specification if nobody has the goods at present. You could even RP a military trial of two competing manufacturers’ weapons for your military.
If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can always branch out into other relevant areas. If you like others’ works and want to help present them in a new spin, post threads as an in-world media outlet, blogger, critic, analyst etc. Maybe you want to represent a different side of nations? Make stuff like emergency vehicles, civilian vehicles, clothing lines, multinational companies for others to use, etc. There is no reason why you cannot become involved on even the smallest scale to help out with the wider game world.
Involvement
Like I said earlier, your involvement in this setting runs at entirely your own pace. It is not a game (though it may contain games), so it will not be archived due to player inactivity. Even if you only post very sporadically, that is still fine (I do recommend, however, that you don’t just make a ‘place-taker’ nation which does nothing and denies others valuable land). You can get involved as deeply or as shallowly as you wish; anything to contribute to the vibrancy and life of this setting is most welcome.
For example, I plan to run at least one primary nation (Ludobravia), maybe a secondary nation somewhere else, a media outlet or the like reporting on global military activity, and also perhaps a manufacturer of yet-to-be-determined equipment. Of these, Ludobravia is likely to be the most posted subject, with others being updated maybe only once every couple of months.
What more is there to it? If you want to, jump right in. A vast and immersive world awaits...
Pride of Nations
Pride of Nations is a modern-day collaborative setting which you can participate in at entirely your own pace. It is intended to be first and foremost an outlet for modern-themed nations, but also able to facilitate RP and gaming interactions if members so desire. I have decided to keep things simple by modifying an existing world map to make a slightly more broken-looking Planet Earth. This way, we can use already-established climatic and cultural zones to more precisely determine the parameters of our nations. With over 160 different territory slots in which to situate your countries, I hope that every PW member can happily carve out their own nation and contribute every now and again to wider world events.
Picking a Nation Slot
To begin, simply select a territory on the map, colour it in and then post a clipping of the general area with the coloured nation and its desired name in the Birth of a Nation thread. If two territories are separated by a water barrier with no land borders between them, you may claim them as a single territory if you wish. Two territories divided by borders cannot be claimed as a single territory. You may make more than one nation, but ideally these nations should be spread across different continents (for two reasons: one, so that you can put a little cultural and ethnic diversity in your figures and two, so that we don’t end up with four people controlling all of the nations in Europe and newcomers unable to get a look-in. Once you’ve done that, make a thread for your nation and take it from there.
Can I also just ask at this point that you be a little serious about thinking up original names. “Take-offs” of real-world things (such as doing the acronym USSR to death as always) get very tiring very quickly, as do one-shot joke names (e.g the Bananastan Republic). Think creatively and culturally to come up with the perfect national name to fit your nation’s location and people.
Analogues with the Real World
The current setting year is whatever the year is in the real world. For the purposes of absolute simplicity in setup, assume that European nations have had their colonial influence on the rest and that there have been two world wars in the 20th Century. As for the rise of Communism, that is entirely up to each nation to decide whether or not they have had a Communist past.
Languages and religions are pretty freeform. If you want to have an analogue for a real language, just post it up in the Analogues thread. This is a first come, first served basis, so if for example somebody declared Ghami to be the equivalent of Arabic, then any nation using Arabic as a language would canonically have their citizens speaking Ghami to one another. Or you can declare a mash-uppish language (like the Germanic/Slavic ‘Bravic’ for Ludobravia), and others can also have their citizens speaking it if they choose. It is the same with religion, though of course you can change specifics. For example, the Marianism practiced by Ludobravia is mostly Catholic in semblance, but revolves around the mystical powers of “the Blessed Mary” rather than Christ.
It is always a good idea to interweave others’ ideas into your own nation to give a better sense that these are all countries sharing the same history and the same lineage as each other. You can always make this process quicker by adding in blank slots <in these thingies> so that neighbouring/culturally related nations can intertwine their history into your own.
Tech etc.
We are looking for a living, modern-style world here, and so I will presume to make a few restrictions with regards to technology:
1) If a military uses a certain technology, you can have it. So drones, reactive armour, TUSK, all that sort of good stuff; you can have as much of it as you want. NOTE: I will say this once – this only includes equipment in widespread military use. That means that if the technology is only experimental at present (US/Canada invisibility cloaks, I’m looking at you) then at the very best the technology is only experimental in the PoN world and is certainly not in frontline military use. This is to stop sci-fi spam along the lines of but the US experimented with orbital lasers so I should be allowed them...
2) No walking vehicles (unless they are those small, dog-sized bomb disposal robots), no flying tanks/aircraft carriers/fortresses and please, no orbital battle stations. Imagine that your nation exists today, and think of its real-world priorities.
3) That being said, if any new technologies enter widespread military service in the months and years to come, once they are confirmed to be in military use then you can have them.
Acting out your nation
All I have to say for this is: it is not a measuring contest here. Imagine that your nation is working within a budget at all times; million-man armies are not going to be possible for most nations on the map, and setting up a national border consisting of reinforced concrete walls topped with automated miniguns turrets probably won’t earn you anything more than rolling eyes from other members. For example, I plan to make a small nation, Ludobravia, occupying one of the smallest slots on the map, and so my military is likely to be small, centred around fairly few types of equipment manned by a small but dedicated national army. A long-range, B-52 bomber is simply not a realistic goal for my nation, as it would break the miniscule national budget and also anger the (generally) peace-loving Ludobravian people. If you are still desperate to make something for the game world that doesn’t necessarily fit your nation, then do it through other means (see the Not interested in any of the above? section for more) .
The best nations will have a lot of depth. Depth includes art (both paper soldier sheets and scenes), details (e.g all of the stuff you’d expect to find in the right-hand box of a country’s Wikipedia page) and fluff. Fluff especially helps to give a greater feel for what it is like to live, serve and work in your nation.
Role-Playing
If you want to role-play a diplomatic incident/war/airshow/whatever, arrange things with the controllers of the focus nations and work from there in a new thread. If you want to join in an already-running RP, ask those already involved in it and get their approval first. It’s as simple as that.
Gaming
If you want to play a game based around the PoN nations and map, make a thread headed Game: <name>, and establish the rules and parameters by which all players must abide. No game is compulsory for those involved in PoN, but all games should be open to those who want to join. Game events can’t affect those outside of the game unless they choose so, and only material written in national factbook threads outside of the game counts as any form of ‘canon’ for other players (unless otherwise decided). Just try to have fun and don’t let it devolve into a ragefest/spamfest/flamewar.
Not interested in any of the above?
There is nothing saying that you just have to stick to the time-honoured format of building your nation and proceeding from there. There is more to the real world than just nations, after all. Think about what you can make to benefit the game. Even if you don’t want to have to make a nation in order to post up your vehicle designs you can still showcase them by roleplaying as a weapons manufacturer or tech company etc. This can help other players as well. Want a new LAV for your national military but don’t have the time or motivation to make one yourself? Shop around other manufacturers or post up a design specification if nobody has the goods at present. You could even RP a military trial of two competing manufacturers’ weapons for your military.
If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can always branch out into other relevant areas. If you like others’ works and want to help present them in a new spin, post threads as an in-world media outlet, blogger, critic, analyst etc. Maybe you want to represent a different side of nations? Make stuff like emergency vehicles, civilian vehicles, clothing lines, multinational companies for others to use, etc. There is no reason why you cannot become involved on even the smallest scale to help out with the wider game world.
Involvement
Like I said earlier, your involvement in this setting runs at entirely your own pace. It is not a game (though it may contain games), so it will not be archived due to player inactivity. Even if you only post very sporadically, that is still fine (I do recommend, however, that you don’t just make a ‘place-taker’ nation which does nothing and denies others valuable land). You can get involved as deeply or as shallowly as you wish; anything to contribute to the vibrancy and life of this setting is most welcome.
For example, I plan to run at least one primary nation (Ludobravia), maybe a secondary nation somewhere else, a media outlet or the like reporting on global military activity, and also perhaps a manufacturer of yet-to-be-determined equipment. Of these, Ludobravia is likely to be the most posted subject, with others being updated maybe only once every couple of months.
What more is there to it? If you want to, jump right in. A vast and immersive world awaits...
